04 October 2011

My Seven Links ...

... from a small idea, much has come

Being recognized by a fellow blogger is a big thing, but whoever thought to start this 'Seven Links' thing was really pushing the envelope. I am honored that my friend Devaki from over at Weave a Thousand Flavors thinks enough of me that she would like to see what I think of my work. I am, however, intimidated by the task! It's difficult being impartial. It's difficult to judge your own work, to sift through the portfolio of all you've done and evaluate ... and sometimes, it's embarrassing.

I've found myself re-reading back posts and sometimes thinking, Who wrote that drivel? Who photographed that? What was that blogger thinking rambling on about that ? Oh, gosh .... never mind! I guess the exercise here is to NOT be so hard on oneself, but instead, look at the project as a chance to slow down and really celebrate the work ... so my links ... after much kerfluffle... and some added storyline because the concept of food memory is one of the things that first inspired me to start this blog in the first place

Most Beautiful -

... a simple and elegant cake with the softest of frostings and the freshest embellishment

Making cakes with floral and herbal decorations has been 'my thing' for a long time. I have a picture of my daughter, Sara holding her birthday cake up for the camera. It's a large heart shaped single layer cake with icing this exact shade. It has a wreath of beautiful fresh gladiola flowers placed around it - flowers in shades of deep pinks and whites. Sometimes, I think, the food memory dictates the creative response to a new project. So this is my 'most beautiful' inspired by that other 'most beautiful grinning child' ...

... knock me over with a feather ... so many hits and downloads on the Scribd. account, but who doesn't love a great fried dish with a nice cool fresh side?

Fried fish memories go way back to places like Jefferson Elementary School, where cafeteria ladies plied hamburger buns loaded with breaded patties of fish mash, shacks on Cape Cod that had a steady supply of fresh fat fillets of cod or haddock coming crispy from a vat of bubbling oil and into paper-lined baskets with tartar sauce, slaw, and fries on the side, and of fish fry outings with my grandfather in Florida where deep-fried grouper sat alongside hush puppies and slaw and a pineapple ice cream cone waited somewhere along the way back to his and Gram's trailer ...

... the subject of much debate with the historical cookbook enthusiasts ... the question was the authenticity of this pot of warm beans ... tasted pretty authentic to us

When I was a kid, Mom would make baked beans a few times over the course of the winter. Unlike the New England tradition of every Saturday night, our bean suppers were surprises. She didn't have a bean pot. There were too many of us eating together in those days. She had a huge shallow stainless steel covered pan. She'd load up that pan with beans, onions, bacon strips, molasses and sundry, and it would bubble away in the oven for the afternoon. Then, she'd make cornbread or big fat loaves of white bread (from a mix), put together a big green salad and we would wolf the entire pan ... then, later the boys would have farting contests ... probably why she only made them a few times a year ... boys and farting contests and rants about manners ... a mother's cross to bear and the source of great controversy

... who knew that kashi had such caché ? ... served at a dinner party and everyone raved ... then it hit the Internet and got so many hits at Scribd. ... who knew?

Our family has had a 'ghetto version' of Stroganoff that I've made for years. If you ask my kids about Beef Stroganoff, they will most likely smirk and tell you all about a pan of 'Hamburger Stroganoff' that they love ... all egg noodles slathered with ground mince and mushrooms in a rich sour cream and cream of mushroom soup sauce ... nothing to do with a traditional Beef Stroganoff, I can assure you! I thought about the many times I slapped that easy version on the table for us, as I made this newer and healthier version. Who knew there was this tastier and better take on a traditional 'ghetto' dish out there? Who knew?

... catch in my throat ... my very first recipe post ... that no one saw ... sob ... and it's a perfectly respectable Flammekuchen, to boot

This Flammekuchen is truly all about food memory and the need to bring a sweet time back through flavours ... I can still close my eyes and ride my bike from Hohensachsen into Weinheim ... along farmer's paths under plum trees, through strawberry and asparagus fields, around the corner and along the tracks of the Eisenbahn, under overpasses and up over pedestrian bridges, bumping over cobbles to the Marktplatz and Cafe Florian or on down through the town to the locals' brewery, The Woinemer Hausbrauerei ... what a time and what friends we made in good old Baden -Württemberg and what I wouldn't give for a piece of 'the real deal' from Cafe Florian with a cold glass of locally made Riesling !

... a Daring Bakers challenge on which I worked SO HARD ... and it tasted SO GOOD

Sometimes the most basic of food memories inspires. How did my four stack of French toast, slatheredwith soft butter and loaded with cinnamon and sugar turn into such a fluffy confection? Daring Bakers challenges can be totally overwhelming while at the same time pulling the best of your creative juices out of you. That being said, the challenges are something that I dally with and if I don't step up and get back to the challenges, I will be drummed out of the group ...

Okay. That's it! My 7 Links plus my spin. So now, I pass the baton and the challenge to five of the people that I most admire on the food blogging circuit ... I hope you guys have as good a time going back over it all and really thinking about all that you've done at your blogs! If you haven't time to do this, I get it, I still think you guys are 'the bomb, baby!' .